Same-sex marriage bill approved by Finnish parliament

Parliament has approved 105-92 a bill that will pave the way for same-sex marriage, according to YLE in English. The vote in favor of same-sex marriage is the first-ever citizens’ initiative that has been approved by the Eduskunta, or parliament.

The vote was a big setback for Timo Soini and the Perussuomalasiet (PS)* party, which had spent a lot of political capital against the bill.

Other losers were Päivi Räsänen and the Christian Democrats.

The biggest winners were parties like the Greens, Social Democrats, Left Alliance and Swedish People’s Party, which voted in majority for same-sex marriage.

Migrant Tales believes that the passage of the bill will be a big boost for gay rights but for our ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society.

With the passage of the bill, Finland finally joins the other Nordic nations that have approved same sex marriage.

Writes YLE in English: ”The reform will force wide-ranging changes in other legislation, which will take well over a year to finalize. The law will therefore not take effect until 2016 at the earliest.”

Gays and lesbians have been allowed to have registered partnerships since 2002.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.